St. Charles has a quaint and historic downtown. And a restored train station.

After about 15 miles I reached the end of the line at Machens--which is nowhere.

I rode on the quiet and smooth (and flat) roads of the land between the rivers--heading toward
the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri.

Gas is cheaper in Missouri. All those cars have Illinois plates.

The Clark Superbridge looks less super from this angle.

Finally in Illinois after crossing Kansas and Missouri, riding down the Mississippi levee.

That's the Lewis & Clark Confluence Tower thing. I imagine if I gave them money, they
would let me go up there and I could see the confluence.

Just when I started to clean the Katy Trail off my bike. More dust.
The Confluence Trail is mostly crap. I was the only one out there.

Finally I reached the McKinley Bridge and crossed back into Missouri.
Looks like they're building a new bridge.

The last few miles were quite industrial.

Linda captured my last few pedal strokes.

And the traditional carrying of the bike up the stairs.
Someday I'll find the road so I don't have to walk.

And the traditional leaning on the north leg with south leg behind me photo.

Then we loaded the bike into the car and drove to the bike shop that's going to pack it for shipping.
Then we fought our way into the hotel--arriving at the same time as a busload of people--and waiting
quite some time for the elevator.

We had dinner and walked to Busch Stadium to watch the Cards get abused by the Pirates.
It was hot.

It was so hot, we stayed in our seats for only two innings. After that we wandered around the
stadium looking for a breeze.

We found it here. You can feel a little coolness from the pressbox A/C if you stand
right here--under the pressbox windows.